Yesterday, Shawn Andrich, (gamerswithjobs.com) had a great session with Cardell Kerr and David Lennon, both who work at Turbine on Lord of the Rings Online. They talked about the game's new features and some very interesting stuff about the MMO industry as a whole and the viability of the standard WoW formula moving forward.

Also, they talked about little secrets like:

* their favorite games
* their favorite class in Lotro,
* playing in Ettenmoors,
* a console version of LotRO,
* Turbine's biggest the Lord of the Rings fans
 
Edit by Beleglin: The article on gamerswithjobs.com can be found at: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/38088. We have removed the direct link to the mp3 file so gamersatjobs.com get some traffic and not like it was before. We sincerely apologize for this mistake. The news editor that did this will be scrubbing floors in our bathroom for the next 2 weeks.

See the latest Dev Chat Transcript, and find out more about Book 13, and new area Forochel. - There are a number of routes around the Bay of Forochel, so hopefully you will find getting around it a bit easier than Lake Evendim...Click here to read full

See the latest Dev Chat Transcript, and find out more about Book 13, and new area Forochel.

- There are a number of routes around the Bay of Forochel, so hopefully you will find getting around it a bit easier than Lake Evendim.
- The area you can walk on is around the size of the North Downs
- It's level 44-50 content. Mostly solo as well.

Auction House Rejoice! We returned auction string searching functionality. Classes/Skills Ranged auto-attacks have had their miss rates increased when on the move. Quest items will no longer drop while in a raid...Click here to read full

Auction House

• Rejoice! We returned auction string searching functionality.

Classes/Skills

• Ranged auto-attacks have had their miss rates increased when on the move.
• Quest items will no longer drop while in a raid unless the quest items are used for a raid quest.
• The range for melee conjunction skills has been increased to 2.5 meters to match the standard distance for all other melee attacks.
• Guardian Skill Updates:
  • Movement effects have been prioritized to prevent lesser effects from overwriting more powerful effects.
  • “Thrill of Danger” has been fixed to drain power from monsters again instead of fellows (unfortunately it will also break mez again).
  • “Overpower” will no longer toggle off when a Guardian is silenced.
• The trait “Grim Challenge” will no longer reduce the cooldown of the skill Engage.

Crafting

• Re-added the missing Tailoring, Weaponsmith, and Woodworker crafting recipes to treasure tables. These recipes should once again be available via treasure drops.

Items

• Crafted Shields will now properly sheath on the player’s back during ranged attacks, and will properly display the visual FX during combat.
• Ashûrz's Adornment has been converted back to a necklace as it was originally introduced into the game as. If the item is currently slotted into an earring slot it will remain there until unequipped.
• The sixth bonus on the Hunter's “Armour of the Aurochs” has been switched back to “Penetrating Shot.”
• The Captain's Rift gear now grants the wearer the shadow mitigation bonus when the improved trait is slotted.
• Dwarf medium short sleeve armor appearances are now using the correct textures and dyemaps. Dyemaps of dwarf medium upper and lower body textures have been adjusted.

World

• Certain Elites managed to sneak into the Angmar landscape spawns, but they are now appropriately Normals.
• Players should see fewer instances of monsters entering anti-exploit mode.

User Interface

• Pressing Delete in the crafting panel's search box will now refresh the list just like any other key.
• Fixed an issue with the spar timer where it would sometimes appear to stop while sparring.
• Fixed a bug in the dressing room where body parts could vanish.
• If you try on an item in the dressing room it will now be displayed even if that slot has been toggled off on the character journal.

Graphics/Animation/FX

• Mount animations have been adjusted to reduce the jarring nature of run turns using mouse-look.
• Avatars will no longer play their hit animations when hit while riding a mount.
• Idle emotes will now activate less often. No more itching!

Miscellaneous

• Fixed the issue with losing the trail of a fellowship member's companion.
• Fixed an issue where newly-added swift travel routes would be unavailable until you talked to the destination stable-master again.
• Fixed an issue with Fellowship Maneouvers breaking pets’ vitals.
• When distributing items via Master Looter, the character receiving an item must be in the immediate vicinity of the fellowship or raid leader who assigns the item when the chest containing the loot is opened. Please make sure all members of the fellowship or raid are close to the Master Looter before opening the chest and beginning the assignment of loot.

Quests

• “The Matron and the Master” is no longer restricted to solo players, and the instance can now be completed as part of a fellowship.
• Fixed the pathing for monsters in the final boss room of “Book 12 Chapter 6.”
• NPCs will no longer spawn in the ground in “Book 12 Chapter 9.”
• The boss of “Book 12 Chapter 3” now spawns in his adds correctly.
• The issue blocking more than one player from entering the “Seven Swords” instance has now been fixed.
• The quest, “Bullroarer’s Challenge – Advanced,” is now available to players. Party on!

Some interesting information about fishing. Enjoy! Special thanks to Rick. -         You can fish from just about any location that has water, including steams and lakes in neighborhoods. <DBSRick>...Click here to read full

Some interesting information about fishing. Enjoy! Special thanks to Rick.

-         You can fish from just about any location that has water, including steams and lakes in neighborhoods.

<DBSRick> hey I just realized, a whole dev chat went by with no Fishing comments!
<+Keth_Turbine> Fishing is pretty sweet, actually, I saw it up and running the other day.
<DBSRick> I bet. without getting attacked by marketting ninjas, any details you can share about fishing? I was fond of the FFXI system, despite it being punishingly boring.
<+Keth_Turbine> hrm, I'm not the designer on fishing, and I think we've got a dev diary coming, but anyone can be a Fisherman, no matter what.
<+Keth_Turbine> and you can fish just about anywhere, although the pulls will be different depending on what region you are in.
 <DBSRick> Cool. was just curious as to how it would work. Is it a leveled ability, that kind of thing
<+Keth_Turbine> yeah, your skill level will increase and it will affect the pulls.
<DBSRick> nice. sounds good to me. Hopefully the things we pull have a use?
 <+Keth_Turbine> they are fish! They have thousands of uses!
<DBSRick> lmao
<DBSRick> can we put one on the wall and make it talk? Or sing Achey Breaky heart?
 <+Keth_Turbine> I'm honestly not sure what you can fish up, but I have heard some interesting things.
<+Annuvin_LOTRO> Boots.
<+Annuvin_LOTRO> Rings.
 <+Annuvin_LOTRO> Nazgul.
<+Annuvin_LOTRO> You'd be amazed what's just laying around down there.
 <+Keth_Turbine> you can actually fish up an empty bottle to store potions in...
 <DBSRick> oooo! If we fish up a Nazgul can we keep it?
<+Keth_Turbine> (little Zelda reference there.)
<DBSRick> we need someone to serve the beer in the kin house
<+Annuvin_LOTRO> Okay... I'm off to lead the glamour filled life of getting peed on, and changing diapers. Wish me luck!
<+Keth_Turbine> I best take off as well, I want to fish up this exciting spec called "Amarthiel Ascendant" for Book 14.
<+Keth_Turbine> er finish up
<+Keth_Turbine> I've got fish on the brain.
<+Keth_Turbine> remember, all the instances will be boring.
<DBSRick> lol

In general,  there are a couple of problems in this area. In Book 13, Turbine is  trying to make a few tweaks to make this area to try and address those issues. Accessibility - Accessibility is one of those issues, so in Book 13 we are...Click here to read full

In general,  there are a couple of problems in this area. In Book 13, Turbine is  trying to make a few tweaks to make this area to try and address those issues.

Accessibility
- Accessibility is one of those issues, so in Book 13 we are providing a reputation gated travel route from Tinnudir to Echad Garthadir. This route will make it easier to get across Lake Evendim to this area.

- We've also added a Milestone, just in case you'd like to recall here easily from any where in the world.

Flipping the Camps
- Another problem is conveying better what is going on at the 3 camps found in Annúminas and how they relate to accessing the 3 instances there. What we're doing is providing some in-game items to both Tinnudir and Echad Garthadir that, when examined, will help explain the current state of the events and how camp control affects instance accessibility.
- We've also added some region broadcasts when the camps flip state, just to further let people know something is going on out in Annúminas.

Rally Points
- We've also added a new Rally point for the Annúminas Tombs and Palace instances. This rally point will be on the island, so if you are defeated in one of those instances, you will not have to cross back over the bridge. This should make getting back into those instances a lot easier.

Annuminas Quests
- The biggest change coming is to the quests that go into Annúminas. We've decided to make those quests "dailies," or quests that reset everyday. Since you can now do these everyday, we've removed the experience rewards and tweaked the other rewards a bit. Our hope though is that this will help you get more of the barter tokens, the "Arnorian Armour Fragments" and the "Battered Arnorian Armour" items, that you need for the armour sets.

Annuminas Barter Tokens
- Due to the quest change above, we've decided to make the barter tokens bind on acquire. This means that you will no longer be able to trade them once Book 13 is available.
- This means that if you've stored any of these items on Alts, you'll want to send them to whatever character you want to eventually get the armour.
- In addition, if you have any stored in your house, those items will be bound to the first character who picks them up from storage.
- Items that are on the Auction House will be, again, bound to the first person who receives them in their inventory.
- If the items are in your Vault, they will be bound to your character when you take them from the Vault.

Thanks to Kryptix and his kin members, we saw new Screenshots of Forochel. We just hope there will be more official screenshots soon :)

Thanks to Kryptix and his kin members, we saw new Screenshots of Forochel. We just hope there will be more official screenshots soon :)

By order of the Shirriff, we are temporarily disabling the Spring Festival's new Inn League quest following an unfortunate accident involving a keg, a pine tree, a Moor Cowbell, and a Mad Bristlehide. We'll bring it back in an upcoming patch. As...Click here to read full

By order of the Shirriff, we are temporarily disabling the Spring Festival's new Inn League quest following an unfortunate accident involving a keg, a pine tree, a Moor Cowbell, and a Mad Bristlehide. We'll bring it back in an upcoming patch. As consolation to those who haven't yet had a chance to complete the questline, we'll extend the Spring Festival for a week! Sorry for any inconvenience - party on!

All Turbine websites and forums are scheduled for maintenance on Monday, March 10 from 7:00AM - 11:00AM Eastern (-5 GMT). During this time, players may be unable to reach our forums or websites (including myaccount.turbine.com) and may encounter issues logging into the games. Thanks for your patience during the maintenance!

This means we will be extending the Spring Festival up to 31st March.

Players should visit the festival grounds for some spring-themed celebration.  The most wanted item this spring is the Inn League Keg. We made this guide with detailed instructions on how to get the Inn League Keg, and to find out what other...Click here to read full

Players should visit the festival grounds for some spring-themed celebration.  The most wanted item this spring is the Inn League Keg. We made this guide with detailed instructions on how to get the Inn League Keg, and to find out what other quests you can expect during this festival. There are some tips and tricks and where this keg can teleport you. We hope you will find this guide useful.
Spring festival - How to get Inn League Keg

Another guide is about Gift Boxes and very interesting items you could get.
Spring festival - How to get Gift Box

Interested in going to Connect? Now is your chance to win a FREE Connect Weekend Pass, and it couldn’t be any easier! To enter, all you have to do is send an e-mail to lotrocompetition@codemasters.com with why you deserve this ticket in 10...Click here to read full

Interested in going to Connect? Now is your chance to win a FREE Connect Weekend Pass, and it couldn’t be any easier!

To enter, all you have to do is send an e-mail to lotrocompetition@codemasters.com with why you deserve this ticket in 10 words or less!

Please also include your name, date of birth and your e-mail address with your entry.

This Competition is open until 4pm GMT, Friday 7th March and the winner will be notified by e-mail. Please only submit your entry if you are genuinely interested in attending Connect. Connect is Codemasters Onlines premier gaming event held on the 14th and 15th March at the Omega Sektor, Birmingham, England

http://www.codemastersconnect.com

This was really great adventure, and I think everyone should try to find this secret place, because of the gorgeous landscape in "upper Lone Lands" , invisible  walls and unexpected obstacles you come across in this puzzle, totally...Click here to read full

This was really great adventure, and I think everyone should try to find this secret place, because of the gorgeous landscape in "upper Lone Lands" , invisible  walls and unexpected obstacles you come across in this puzzle, totally different from usual quests.

We hope you will enjoy in this adventure as much as we did. We made
a small guide with directions and screenshots that will help you to find this place. Trust me you won't regret.